The host-terminal communication model is used in many areas. The host runs applications and may communicate with the terminal using messages. The messages may comprise screens that display the results of the application run on the host, as well as providing an input means for inputting information to the host application. A connection may comprise state information that indicates the connection and application state associated with the connection.
FIG. 1 depicts in a block diagram a prior art environment 100 for providing secure connections between a host and a terminal. The prior art environment 100 comprises a host computer 105. The host computer 105 has an application 107 that communicates with a secure server 110. The secure server 110 provides for non-persistent secure connections 115 between the secure server 110 and the wireless terminal 120, and between the secure server 110 and the application 107. The secure connection 115 with the wireless terminal 120 may time-out quickly due to the secure server protocol. If a wireless terminal 120 is out of communication temporarily the connection with the secure server 110 must be re-established. However, once the connection is lost, the screen and state information of the connection associated with the application is lost. As a result, if the wireless terminal 120 temporarily loses connection with the secure server 110, the terminal 120 must re-establish the state of the connection upon re-connection. As a result the secure communication between the host 105 and terminal 120 is not persistent.
FIG. 2 shows a further prior art environment 200 for maintaining persistent secure communication between a host and a terminal. The environment 200 comprises a host computer 205. The host computer has an application 210 that communicates with a terminal 220. A secure server 215 provides a non-persistent secure communication channel 225 between the host computer 205 and the terminal 220. The secure server 215 communicates with the application 210 through an interactive Screen utility 212. The interactive Screen utility 212 is a program that allows a terminal 220 to establish a connection to an application 205 though the secure server 215. The terminal 220 may disconnect connect and re-connect to the interactive Screen utility 212 which maintains the connection to the application.
There exists ways to provide secure communication between an application and a wireless terminal. Existing solutions may provide persistent secure communication between a host and a terminal, however the existing solutions may not provide for secure persistent communication for generic applications. Furthermore, existing solutions do not allow multiple independent secure connections to be established between an application and terminals.